Washington Interracial Workshop Shop-Talk: 1952
Shop-Talk was the newsletter of the Washington Interracial Workshop, a Washington, D.C. affiliate of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that conducted demonstrations and civil disobedience designed to integrate public facilities in the city in the late 1940s and early 1950x.
Washington Interracial Workshop history adapted from a Wisconsin Historical Society description:
“The Washington Interracial Workshop, which affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1949, began in 1947 as a summer workshop sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR).
“The summer program attracted a dozen persons from the District of Columbia and other states throughout the United States. Local participants considered the Workshop so successful that they formed a separate, permanent organization dedicated to abolishing segregation in the nation's capital.
“Both this organization and the summer workshops, which CORE and FOR continued to sponsor every year, operated by the CORE principles of interracial membership, direct action, and non-violent tactics. Membership fluctuated between ten and twenty people.
“Under the chairmanship of Lynn Seiter from 1947 to 1948, the Workshop picketed and leafleted patrons of segregated facilities at the Y.M.C.A., the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and public swimming pools in the nation's capital.
“When Don Coan took over the chairmanship in April 1949, the Workshop began a lengthy struggle to integrate D.C. movie theatres that only ended in April 1951; Coan also moved to make eating places and recreational facilities available to people of all races.
“In the spring of 1951 Albert Mindlin succeeded Coan and spearheaded efforts to integrate Washington's playgrounds. The Rosedale Playground campaign became a city-wide issue after a black child drowned while swimming in the playground pool after hours on June 22, 1952. The playground was not opened to blacks until October 28 of that year.
Dispute over tactics:
The Washington Interracial Workshop became embroiled in a national CORE dispute of tactics and the CORE fieldworker Wallace Nelson who organized and led many of the Rosedale Playground protests. The Washington Interracial Workshop had initiated a neighborhood group at Rosedale named the Citizens Committee to Integrate Rosedale Playground.
The following description of the dispute is from Harambe City, the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland by Nishani Frazier:
“The accidental drowning death of a Black child who’d snuck on the playground to use the pool reenergized protests the following summer. Beginning in July [1952], Nelson led group demonstrations with marchers who practiced noncooperation and went limp, but protests became increasingly aggressive over time.
“Black children and parents continued to picket after the Nelson-led demonstrations, or simply climbed the fence to allow Black children to play. After several incidents of physical provocation, an altercation occurred between Rocco Colandreo [White] and Walter Lucas, a member of the Citizens Committee. According to DC Core member Lillian Palenius, Lucas lost his temper after hostile Whites attacked local Black children and their chaperones. Lucas left the protest and returned with his gun, which he then shot into the air. Both he and Colandreo were arrested.
“Although the committee was a grassroots offshoot of Washington, DC CORE, Lucas failed to remain nonviolent. His actions touched off a firestorm. Both organizations bitterly debated the use of violent tactics with Rosedale Committee characterizing DC CORE’s condemnation and withdrawal of support as hypocritical.
“Plus many believed that Lucas’s actions pressed the Recreational Board to hastily desegregate both the playground and the pool at Rosedale. According to Mindlin, Rosedale residents viewed Lucas as a ‘symbol of revolt; even though they agreed on the surface, that his action was foolish and contrary to the spirit of the campaign.’
“In his final critique of the successes and failures of the Rosedale demonstrations, Mindlin concluded that ‘most of the neighborhood people never really absorbed the philosophy of nonviolence.’ And most importantly, ‘not only did an act of violence4 by one of our people create psychological conflict that practically disrupted the group, but these conflicts exposed deep racial antagonisms toward the Whites in the group. On the other side, the effort to preserve nonviolent discipline created a harshness of spirit that did harm.’”
National opponents of Nelson’s approach seized on the incident. They blamed Nelson’s advocacy of militant pacifism as the cause of the incident with the gun at Rosedale. At the 1953 CORE convention the New York and St. Louis CORE chapters led the charge to remove Nelson as a CORE fieldworker.”
The Workshop gradually became inactive after 1953, and Mindlin became more absorbed in national CORE disputes. Following ineffective attempts to integrate the Metropolitan Police Boys Club, the Workshop disbanded on March 13, 1955. In the mid-1960's, the Washington CORE chapter was reactivated under the leadership of Julius Hobson.
February 12, 1952 – washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1952-0...
May 13, 1952 (missing pages) - washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1952-0...
The newsletter is courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, www.crmvet.org/index.html
Washington Interracial Workshop Shop-Talk: 1952
Shop-Talk was the newsletter of the Washington Interracial Workshop, a Washington, D.C. affiliate of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that conducted demonstrations and civil disobedience designed to integrate public facilities in the city in the late 1940s and early 1950x.
Washington Interracial Workshop history adapted from a Wisconsin Historical Society description:
“The Washington Interracial Workshop, which affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1949, began in 1947 as a summer workshop sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR).
“The summer program attracted a dozen persons from the District of Columbia and other states throughout the United States. Local participants considered the Workshop so successful that they formed a separate, permanent organization dedicated to abolishing segregation in the nation's capital.
“Both this organization and the summer workshops, which CORE and FOR continued to sponsor every year, operated by the CORE principles of interracial membership, direct action, and non-violent tactics. Membership fluctuated between ten and twenty people.
“Under the chairmanship of Lynn Seiter from 1947 to 1948, the Workshop picketed and leafleted patrons of segregated facilities at the Y.M.C.A., the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and public swimming pools in the nation's capital.
“When Don Coan took over the chairmanship in April 1949, the Workshop began a lengthy struggle to integrate D.C. movie theatres that only ended in April 1951; Coan also moved to make eating places and recreational facilities available to people of all races.
“In the spring of 1951 Albert Mindlin succeeded Coan and spearheaded efforts to integrate Washington's playgrounds. The Rosedale Playground campaign became a city-wide issue after a black child drowned while swimming in the playground pool after hours on June 22, 1952. The playground was not opened to blacks until October 28 of that year.
Dispute over tactics:
The Washington Interracial Workshop became embroiled in a national CORE dispute of tactics and the CORE fieldworker Wallace Nelson who organized and led many of the Rosedale Playground protests. The Washington Interracial Workshop had initiated a neighborhood group at Rosedale named the Citizens Committee to Integrate Rosedale Playground.
The following description of the dispute is from Harambe City, the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland by Nishani Frazier:
“The accidental drowning death of a Black child who’d snuck on the playground to use the pool reenergized protests the following summer. Beginning in July [1952], Nelson led group demonstrations with marchers who practiced noncooperation and went limp, but protests became increasingly aggressive over time.
“Black children and parents continued to picket after the Nelson-led demonstrations, or simply climbed the fence to allow Black children to play. After several incidents of physical provocation, an altercation occurred between Rocco Colandreo [White] and Walter Lucas, a member of the Citizens Committee. According to DC Core member Lillian Palenius, Lucas lost his temper after hostile Whites attacked local Black children and their chaperones. Lucas left the protest and returned with his gun, which he then shot into the air. Both he and Colandreo were arrested.
“Although the committee was a grassroots offshoot of Washington, DC CORE, Lucas failed to remain nonviolent. His actions touched off a firestorm. Both organizations bitterly debated the use of violent tactics with Rosedale Committee characterizing DC CORE’s condemnation and withdrawal of support as hypocritical.
“Plus many believed that Lucas’s actions pressed the Recreational Board to hastily desegregate both the playground and the pool at Rosedale. According to Mindlin, Rosedale residents viewed Lucas as a ‘symbol of revolt; even though they agreed on the surface, that his action was foolish and contrary to the spirit of the campaign.’
“In his final critique of the successes and failures of the Rosedale demonstrations, Mindlin concluded that ‘most of the neighborhood people never really absorbed the philosophy of nonviolence.’ And most importantly, ‘not only did an act of violence4 by one of our people create psychological conflict that practically disrupted the group, but these conflicts exposed deep racial antagonisms toward the Whites in the group. On the other side, the effort to preserve nonviolent discipline created a harshness of spirit that did harm.’”
National opponents of Nelson’s approach seized on the incident. They blamed Nelson’s advocacy of militant pacifism as the cause of the incident with the gun at Rosedale. At the 1953 CORE convention the New York and St. Louis CORE chapters led the charge to remove Nelson as a CORE fieldworker.”
The Workshop gradually became inactive after 1953, and Mindlin became more absorbed in national CORE disputes. Following ineffective attempts to integrate the Metropolitan Police Boys Club, the Workshop disbanded on March 13, 1955. In the mid-1960's, the Washington CORE chapter was reactivated under the leadership of Julius Hobson.
February 12, 1952 – washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1952-0...
May 13, 1952 (missing pages) - washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1952-0...
The newsletter is courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, www.crmvet.org/index.html